Your pullups and pushups especially look great and you are one strong woman! Nice work. The only thing I noticed from the video is you might want to get a little lower on the overhead squats (but the way you held the bar looked great).
Ironcross–Thanks for the critiquing! For overhead squats, I lose a considerable amount of my stability as soon as I try to drop below parallel-ish. Taking video is great because I can look back at other lifting sessions and spot a pattern–in snatch work and other overhead squatting, the same depth is reached. Beyond it, I seem to have troubles keeping the load overhead, which is probably mostly to do with my limited overhead shoulder mobility. Definitely something I can improve on.
Today I took a visit to the nearest hardware store to my house and bought a foot of 4" diameter ABS pipe for 5 bucks. I decided to cheap out and take a visit to the hardware store for my foam rolling needs because I’m a college student therefore I am cheap. Also, I find foam rollers–even the high density foam ones and the ones with the PVC core and matting on the outside to be nowhere near as effective as good old piping.
ABS is apparently a little less durable than PVC, but looks very much like PVC. So far, it seems to work just fine. I went with a footlong piece instead of a 2 foot because I’d prefer to have something a little more portable than I can stick in my hockey bag, travel bag, or gym bag and be able to use it whenever I need.
Today’s lift was fine. It seemed very average–which is never a bad thing. I’ve started to add more groin pre-hab/rehab work into my warmups and such because it’s a recurrent problem area with me. I aggravated it again a bit at camp and wore a groin wrap most of the time I was on the ice. It something I’d rather see corrected through strengthening, mobility, and soft-tissue work, instead of just moving to wearing a heavy duty pair of compression shorts (something I might add anyways).
Warmups:
15 minutes foam rolling and prestretch
15 minutes: jump rope, run/backpedals, hurdle over/unders, cariocas, walking side lunges, med ball work, pushup rotation, banded shuffles, fw/bw monster walks, cossack squats
15 minutes movement: single leg skips, full skips, broad jumps, mid-thigh box jumps, broad jumps, 5-10-5s, 10-20-10s
Skater squats X 4 ea leg
Stability ball groin holds X 5-10 seconds each position
Lateral lunges X 5 ea leg
X3
4 sets of:
205# back squat (3, 3, 2, 2)
6 X chin ups
plank holds
3 sets of:
2 X 120# incline bench
lateral plank holds
4 sets of:
4 ea arm X 60# DB rows
6 X 145# RDLs
20 X bear position toe touches
plate pinch holds for time (2 25# plates)
My hips and groin are tricky, too. Sometimes (if I’ve been sitting for a while beforehand) I’ll be walking down the road when my groin kind of locks up and I’m limping along in agony thinking “argh, pop you bastard!” Then it’ll pop and everything is fine.
You seem to do a lot of good stuff to warm up, though. What are Cossack squats - are they like pistols (I’m picturing the Cossack dancing).
Cal–Sometimes I think I do too much to warmup! I sometimes find it tough to condense the warmups if I need to sneak in a quick workout before work or something.
Cossack squats:
I do them unweighted right now, and just work on quality of movement. I find on my right side (the side I pulled during the season) I have trouble even with just bodyweight. Groin pulls are rough–even though it’s been 7-8 months since originally injuring it, my right side still gives me grief.
I don’t know why it’s takin me so long to come in and say hi.
I really dig your training!!
Loved the video! Its very motivational to watch you kill those workouts. Clean grip reverse lunges…I’m intrigued.
Well I guess you have a point - you’re spending nearly an hour just on warming up. At that point I’d be ready to leave the gym and go home! But on the other hand, if it keeps you injury free, I can’t knock it.
Thanks for the video. I may try these but not sure I’ll be able to do them right away due to balance and hip mobility issues.
oh wow those cossack squats are amazing! i’ve done side lunges as part of my warm-up before, but i didn’t know it was possible to really squat down low like that! i’ll give them a try but i’ll admit i’m not terribly optimistic. i’d imagine it would take a lot of work to get it all smooth like that.
i think you might be right about shoulder mobility limiting your stability in the overhead squat. one (fairly easy) way to find out is to try overhead squatting with a broomstick. i find i can really feel what it is that is limiting my movement. whether it is my thoracic spine, my shoulders, or my hips. i have trouble getting low under squat-jerks because my shoulders aren’t quite flexible enough for overhead squatting with a clean grip yet. need to work on that.
Just wanted to pop in and say hello! I’ve scanned your log and found your workouts extremely motivational. Keep up the good work and keep posting those videos!
MiM–HI! I don’t think I pop in your log as much as I should, so it’s acceptable that you’ve just now made your presence known.
Kimba–I heart clean grip lunges.
Cal–The movement portion is becoming less of warmup and more of an actual workout now. On some days, I’ve separated the movement work and lifting into two separate sessions. Although, if I don’t set a timer, I’ll foam roll FOREVER.
Alexus–Cossack squats are fun. Humbling but fun. They really seem to help open up the hips. The main limiting factor is definitely shoulder mobility. To keep the bar overhead at the top of the squat, I have to overextend through the spine. As I drop lower, it gets harder and harder to maintain the positioning, as my shoulders can no longer keep the bar stabilized overhead. T-spine and hip mobility issues do play in as well, but the main issue definitely is shoulder-related.
K–HI. Thanks for the kind words! Keep dropping in as you please!
Last night after work, I did a movement session in my backyard and on the street in front of my house. Earlier in the summer, I wouldn’t have dared to do an evening workout outside, for fear of becoming a donor to the Blood Bank of Mosquitoes, but an explosion in the dragonfly population has rendered the threat of unwanted blood donating to almost nil.
Warmup–
Foam rolling–glutes, quads, IT band, groin (with PVC pipe on box), t-spine
Run/backpedal
Shuffles
Cariocas, long step
Cariocas, short step with crossunder squat
Bear crawl
Pushup rotations
Overhead walking lunges (with an old tire)
Cossack squats (with the old tire)
Agility work
5 yards and back
5 yards, backpedal back
Shuffle left 5 yds, sprint back
Shuffle right 5 yds, sprint back
15 yds, back
Backpedal 5 yds, sprint back
5 yds, shuffle left back
5 yds, shuffle right back
30 yds, back
5x
Today’s workout was just the lifting portion that goes along with yesterday’s movement work, plus some Sunday Funday fun. Had to sub out jerks for DB snatches again because some footballers were using the rack.
4 sets of:
4 X DB snatches (55#, 55#, 60#, 55#)
4 sets of:
2 X 145# clean high pulls
6 X feet elevated inverted rows
Y,T,Ls
4 sets of:
120# close grip bench (6, 5, 4, 6)
2 X max distance med ball throw
20 X slideboard leg curls
20 X stability ball leg curls
After the workout, I sought out a big hill to run up. I did 15 minutes of hill sprints up the Dief–one of the biggest hills in town. The Dief is a killer sledding hill in the winter. As a kid, I’m pretty sure I got a concussion from ripping down the hill and crashing headfirst into a conveniently located icy base of a snowman. I forgot to take a picture of the the Dief, but it’s got a nice incline to it. The leg burner is the last 15-20 feet at the top where the incline is steeper than the rest of the hill.
Anyways, I did 8 sprints, with my times between 24 and 18 seconds. It took about a minute and a half to walk down the hill, so that was sufficient for rest. I wasn’t going to run down the hill between sprints as my knees dislike downhill running, and I’m pretty sure I’d take a nasty header.
Grief, that’s a lot of work, what with the sprints. And yes, it’s not good to run downhill. My old job was up a big hill about a mile from the nearest station. To save time on the way home, I’d run down on it. One night I stepped up on to the train and got a sharp pain in my right knee. The knee bothered me a while after that - I looked into it and found that running down steep(ish) hills is really not a great thing to do as far as knee health is concerned. Not that I can run at all right now because of my stupid foot. Gah.
will try the cossack squat for mobility tonight. great suggestion.
also your DB snatches are strong! love them
Do you make all this stuff up or is your coach still helping out?
MD–The general program design is from the coach. He has okayed me to modify the lifting as needed to ensure my shoulders don’t flare up any.
That being said, most of the extra mobility work and warmup stuff is my own doing. I used what he gave me for these things as a template, and then modified to what I felt I needed. The hill sprints were definitely my own doing as well–thought it would be good work capacity work.
When I head back stateside I’ll probably discuss with him what worked and what didn’t, what I tweaked and why, and just other questions about the programming in general. After all, I am interning this semester, and the coach stressed that interns should always have questions.
Cal pointed me in your direction and I’m so glad I popped in here. You’ve got some great shit going on.
why do we heart so many of the same things-
tiny superjocks unite!!
I like the clean grip lunges after pulling
your db snatches are good- nice work all around.
it is hard indeed to cut down on the mobility work
or warmups I switched to doing complexes to start I like it.
No wonder goalies are so hard to beat!
Lol, it’s hard for me to START the mobility work or the warmups.
Jr, I’m told Dan Ellis is going to be in the Fantasy hockey game the skills camp is having for us in 2 weeks.
Other pros too.
KM–Fuck yeah tiny superjocks! I like the sound of that. Complexes, eh? I’ve started making my warmups flow better–less time in between movements, and it seems to be helping. But still, the warmups really help prep my state of mind I need to get it done in the lifting portion. I’ll keep toying with it.
Patch–HI! Glad you stopped in!!
2–Dan Ellis? Cool! I love watching NHL goalies at work–they make things look easy…most of the time. I definitely respect the skill level of pro players–hopefully you have a hell of a time at the fantasy game.
Been feeling sluggish and tired all week. Monday and Tuesday I had less than an hour between shifts, and Wednesday I was just hella tired, so my ass didn’t get to the gym. Wasn’t feeling much better today, but mentally fish-hooked myself into getting motivated to go.
Turned out to be a decent gym session, despite the pukey feeling in my throat. I don’t even understand that, because I don’t think I was overexerting myself and I don’t think I’m ill.
5 minutes PVC rolling–IT band, glutes, quads, t-spine, groin (done with med ball–works SO much better)
Getting the groin with a med ball looks similar to awkwardly humping a melon, but it definitely does the trick.
Warmup (15 min ish)–jump rope, hurdle step overs/unders, run/backpedals, crazy complex lunge thinger (inch worm into downward dog, into lunge, overhead reach, rockback), lateral lunges, crossover drop lunges, sprints from various starts
3 sets of:
1 + 1 + 1 95# clean complex (hang power clean + jerk + overhead squat)
bar hangs for time
bear hold work
4 sets of:
16 X 105# clean grip reverse lunges
chin ups (6, 6, 5, 5)
4 X 25# DBs curl + press
4 sets of:
pushups (26, 15, 11, 10)
14 X 50# DB swings
inverted rows (6, 6, 8, 8)
I leave behind the comfort of my teenage years tomorrow. In the past year or so, I’ve started to become more aware of the adult world around me. Issues and problems that once seemed so far away have started to hit closer to home, and I’m having to make more difficult decisions for myself. It certainly can be overwhelming at times; there’s days where I want to shove my fingers in my ears, stick my head in the sand, and wish it’ll all pass by. Life happens though–and it certainly doesn’t just happen to me alone. Shit happens.
ANYWHOOOOOOO…ending this on a lighter note:
One of my aunts and her two young sons (aged 6 and 4) came down from Alberta to visit this week. My hair is shorter at the moment–much shorter than it has been when I’ve hung out with these cousins in the past. The 6er didn’t greet me with the normal grin and “Hi!”, but rather a perplexed look and the question, “How come you look like a boy?”
Easy comment to laugh off for me–I’ve heard it a lot from the younger, verbal kids I work with a camp. I’m not exactly amazingly endowed in the boobage department, so it’s a totally understandable mistake. One of the big guys at the gym still thinks I’m a little dude, and I’ve just been too lazy to tell him otherwise. I’ve had semi-pro and junior level shooters mistake me for a guy too–they’re pretty surprised when they finally realize that it’s a CHICK that’s been shutting them down.
[quote]juniormint wrote:
I leave behind the comfort of my teenage years tomorrow. In the past year or so, I’ve started to become more aware of the adult world around me. Issues and problems that once seemed so far away have started to hit closer to home, and I’m having to make more difficult decisions for myself. It certainly can be overwhelming at times; there’s days where I want to shove my fingers in my ears, stick my head in the sand, and wish it’ll all pass by. Life happens though–and it certainly doesn’t just happen to me alone. Shit happens. [/quote]
Happy Birthday!
You seem like a really well rounded person, it’ll just get better with time. I’ve found worrying just isn’t worth it.
This is hilarious.
Happy Birthday!
You are one very squared away young adult, I think you will have no problem with dealing with the challenges you will encounter.
Enjoy your birthday!